What is content strategy?

As communicators, PRs & marketers, we are all responsible for content in one form or another. But I find it amazing that content strategy is not a common term.

Sure, we have communications strategy, marketing & PR strategies – but not content strategy. Content is the thing that links all our PR, marketing & communications activities together – so why wouldn’t we have a content strategy for our organisation?

Why do we need to publish content?

Content is the currency of the social web. If you provide your prospects, customers & stakeholders with valuable & relevant content they will share & talk about you. They will link with you. You can build Trust, Authority & Loyalty. And by publishing optimised content you will also get found in search engines.

This is why, when we were developing the initial concepts for our consultancy, we used this slide;

In other words, content is the thing that drives success in social media.

So it should be clear that we also need a content strategy. Something that makes sure all of the the content we publish works together in a joined up way.

My own definition of a content strategy:

The creation, curation, delivery & management of online content designed to drive people through their purchase or decision making cycle about your business or organisation.

Which means content strategy incorporates not only the creation and curation of marketing communications content, but also the social media marketing (content promotion), people skills and internal processes and systems such as content management systems for its management.

So, the next time someone asks you what a content strategy is, maybe you have an answer.